10 Best Home Defense Upgrades for Remington 870

Remington 870 is one of the most popular shotguns for home defense. It is reliable, it is easily customizable. Shotgun shot sound is so loud and powerful that will stop threat immediately. Remington 870 is good for home defense out of the box but there are several important upgrades that will make it even more efficient.

Eotech Integrated Forend Light (IFL) for Remington870

These upgrades are carefully selected and tested by me and many shooters around the world. Upgrades for home defense must be simple and reliable.

Home defense is very stressful and critical situation, that is why all equipment must be as simple and as reliable as possible.

1. Eotech IFL

First rule of home defense: “If you can’t identify a target you can’t shoot it”.

That is extremely important because you must not shoot a target that you can’t see and identify. If you hear something downstairs during the night you need to check what it is (of course, calling Police first is a wise idea).

Maybe it is your cat, or wife on diet which decided to eat something while nobody sees! :) That’s funny, but shooting at somebody you can’t see is totally wrong! You must identify your target first.

Shotgun integrated forend light enables you use your shotgun effectively during the night.

Eotech IFL – Integrated Forend Light

Eotech Integrated Forend Light is affordable and effective choice for home defense. It is not as expensive as Surefire forend but has almost all features. It is little less powerful but has all other features of a more expensive light forend.

The best thing is that you can manipulate light switch without removing your hand from the forend.

2. Magpul SGA Stock

It is important to have stock that fits you. If you can hold and shoulder shotgun comfortably, you can shoot fast and accurately.

One of the most popular aftermarket stocks. Built like tank. Reliable and easily customizable.

Magpul SGA Stock and Magpul MOE Forend quickly became one of the most popular aftermarket sets for Remington 870. It is not surprising because Magpul has solid reputation of the manufacturer of innovative and quality accessories for firearms. I decided to buy this stock and forend to test them and see how good they are for Remington 870.

At first, Magpul SGA Stock looks unusual but very interesting. That is because Magpul is not afraid of experiments and has will to design innovative products.

Advantages:
1. Unique design, you either love it or hate it.
2. Pistol grip incorporated into classic stock is very comfortable
3. Many additional accessories (cheek risers, sling adapters).
4. Spacers enable you to adjust the length of pull.

3. Mesa Tactical Sidesaddle

Mesa Tactical 6-Round Side Saddle

When you grab a shotgun in the night, all ammunition you have is in shotgun and on shotgun, so it’s important to have receiver mount shell holder.

I recommend getting Mesa Tactical sidesaddle. This is the most durable and reliable sidesaddle available on the market today. Mesa Tactical sidesaddle is made of aluminium which makes it indestructible. It is low profile and looks fantastic!

One of the good features of this shell carrier is that it doesn’t hide the serial number.

There are many different versions of this sidesaddle. There are 4-round, 6-round and even 8-round shell carriers.

4. Brownells Stainless Steel Follower

Factory Remington 870 magazine follower is cheap and easy to brake. This is number one cause for feeding problems. First Remington 870s had metal followers which were strong and reliable. Changing factory magazine follower is extremely important to ensure reliable feeding. Remember, that broken extractor can stuck inside the magazine tube and you will have to disassemble your shotgun to fix that. And if we are talking about self-defense situation this is the worst case scenario. Factory follower is junk, remove it as soon as possible!

Brownells Stainless Steel Magazine Follower

When you hold it in your hands you feel that it is heavy and reliable, it is thick and made of stainless steel, it is even thicker than Vang Comp Systems follower. Looks good and works well, I didn’t have any malfunctions during the tests. Brownells Magazine Follower has grooves and will work with Remington 870 shotguns which have dimples but don’t have extension.

Stainless Steel Magazine Follower for Remington 870 (by Brownells)

Brownells Stainless Steel Magazine Follower is very good alternative to Vang Comp Systems follower. It is machined, it is stainless, it is thicker than Vang Comp Systems follower. It will last forever.

5. Tritium Sights

Better sights are very important because you use them every time you shoot. It is good idea go get Tritium sights because they glow in the dark for years.

This set is very sturdy and well made. I have tested them in day light and they were very good and easy to use. Of course they don’t glow in the daylight as light gathering sights but easily identifiable thanks to the white ring around tritium tubes. Also, Ameriglo sights glow in the dark thanks to the tritium elements (which will be glowing for 12 years). You can choose several colors for your sights, I have front dot of the green color and yellow dots on the back sight. You can choose all green elements if you want. These sights are little higher than standard ones but I like it.

6. Non-MiM Extractor

Remington 870 Extractors: MIM and non-MIM

Machined extractor is one of the must-have upgrades for your Remington 870. It insures reliable extraction of fired shells. Police version of the Remington 870 utilizes non-MIM extractor too because it is more reliable.

7. Oversized Safety

A lot of shotgun owners prefer to replace the standard factory Remington 870 safety because it is rather small and in a stress (home defense) situation it maybe difficult to quickly disengage it. Oversized safety button enables you to disengage safety fast ensuring that you will be able to use your shotgun when you need it. This is very important, especially in stress situation. Also, oversized safety button is much more easier to find when you wearing gloves.

Wilson Combat (Scattergun Technologies) Safety Jumbo Head Safety

Very good safety button for Remington 870. Works great and can be easily disengaged. It doesn’t stick out much and big enough to be quickly disengaged. The quality of this safety button is very good. This is the only one oversized safety which can be used with Knoxx recoil reducing stocks.

8. Short Barrel

The most popular barrel for homedefense is the Remington 870 18 or 18.5″ bead sight barrel. It is short, simple and inexpensive.

This short barrel enables you to easily manouevre around the house. It is possible to change the factory bead with light gathering or Tritium one.

Remington 870 Barrel

This barrel is universal tool which is good for almost any purpose. Of course, longer barrel will be better for hunting and ghost ring sights will be better for home defense. But 18.5″ bead sight barrel enables you to do almost all tasks. It is good choice for beginners or for people that want to have only one shotgun for home defense and for week end clay shooting.

Comments: 2

All around, decent selection. With respect to the sidesaddles, regardless of what you choose, pay more attention to the technique(s) you employ to implement it in your shooting. Spend some some dollars and get a 25 round box of dummy rounds. Some will use an over the top approach to Tactical Reloading while others learn and teach you to come from the bottom. Both have their good and bad points but a lot of that comes from adapting the technique to your weapon. If you use a high rise mount on a red dot, as an example, you can either bring it into your 18″ workspace and use the over the top or remain on target while loading from underneath. People knock one or the other. Spend the time and effort to work both into your arsenal of techniques.

My 870 has most of these improvements, but one which I have gotten away from is the sidesaddle. I found it to be too cumbersome and not worth the added weight and width. It would sometimes catch on the sling or other gear when the shotgun was carried or deployed from a slung position. I’m sure the sidesaddle works well for some applications, but I prefer to use a pouch to supplement what’s in the tube…

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